Surāshṭra
Surāshṭra · su-rāshṭra, “the good kingdom”
Surāshṭra is a country (deśa) that the Vāmana Purāṇa names twice. It names it as one of the holy places where Bhagavān Vishṇu, as Vāmana, abides: at Surāshṭra he is present as Mahābhuja, “the mighty-armed”. The Purāṇa also tells of the merchant Sudharma of Śākala, who set out for Surāshṭra with goods of great value and was robbed of everything in the desert on the way. That loss led him to the preta Somaśarmā, to the Śravaṇa Dvādaśī vrata, and at last, through many births, to his birth as King Purūravas.
Bhagavān Vāmana as Mahābhuja
After his upanayana, Bhagavān Vāmana told his guru Bharadvāja Ṛshi of the holy places in which he, the many-formed, dwells. The earth, the sky, pātāla, the oceans, divi (the heavens), the directions and all the mountains, he said, are filled with his forms. He then named his places one by one, and among them: “At Surāshṭra I am Mahābhuja.” The same word also stands as an epithet, “the mighty-armed”, in the second pāpa-śamana stotra (the stotra that quiets pāpa), which Agastya Maharshi told and Pulastya Maharshi passed on to Nārada Maharshi.
Of all these places of his presence Bhagavān Vāmana said that they are sanātana (eternal), purātana (ancient) and pavitra (holy); they give dharma, they are full of tejas (divine radiance), they destroy pāpa (sin), and they are always to be praised. Devas, humans and sādhyas who practise darśana (seeing), sparśana (touching), kīrtana (praising) and smaraṇa (remembering) of these forms surely gain all four purushārthas: dharma, artha, kāma and moksha. “This is certain,” said Bhagavān Vāmana.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 61, 63
Sudharma’s journey to Surāshṭra
Pulastya Maharshi told this account to Nārada Maharshi and said that it removes pāpa. It happened long ago, at the beginning of the Tretā yuga. In the Madra country there was a famous city named Śākala. In it lived a merchant named Sudharma: wealthy, virtuous, learned in many śāstras, a great enjoyer of life. Once he took goods of great value and all his movable wealth, left his own country and set out for Surāshṭra. On the way, in a desert region, robbers stopped him and carried off everything he had.
Left with only the clothes he wore, Sudharma wandered in that desert like a madman, until he fell asleep under a lone śamī tree where no bird or animal was to be seen. There the leader of the pretas, Somaśarmā, received him as a guest and fed him from two pots of curd-rice and water that appeared at midday. Somaśarmā told him that in his life as a miserly brāhmaṇa of Śākala he had made only one dāna (gift), on the Bhādrapada Dvādaśī, the Śravaṇa Dvādaśī vrata, and that this alone now fed him and his companions. He asked Sudharma to offer piṇḍa for him at Gayā, and to keep that vrata.
The pretas then carried Sudharma across the desert to the lovely Śūrasena country. There he traded well and earned wealth again. He offered piṇḍa at Gayāśira for the pretas by name and gotra, and they all left the preta state and went to Brahmaloka. Sudharma kept the Śravaṇa Dvādaśī vrata, and through births in the Gandharva, Yaksha and Indra lokas and on earth he was born at last as Purūravas.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 53
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 53, 61, 63